


Nirn Ops: The Argonian Man Station

by WAR10CKcrimsondemon



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Cryptography, Dark Brotherhood - Freeform, Digital Transmission, Shortwave, numbers stations, technomancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 19:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2320235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WAR10CKcrimsondemon/pseuds/WAR10CKcrimsondemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dark Brotherhood has a new Numbers Station codenamed Blackwood Miner. This station is run by a familier ex-shadowscale. But it involves some pretty advanced technology that both Ocheeva and Teinaava cannot understand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nirn Ops: The Argonian Man Station

`LOCATION: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, Cheydinhal, Cryodiil Sector.`

"Echelon 09942 15328 80771 88208 33335, 09942 15328 80771 88208 33335, 09942..." The Speaker of the Cheydinhal Sanctuary was listening to the radio receiving the latest Technomancer Contracts from a new Numbers Station. This station is operated by an Argonian Male based on the voice and thus it was given the name the Argonian Man. Darken Rahl the Listener was busy creating a report on this station's message protocol as this was the first time it was used on Nirn. As Ocheeva and Teinaava walked by the radio room they heard the Argonian voice and this perked their ears. The voice sounded familiar.

In the room where the listener was working the door opened and Rahl was confronted by the two Argonians.

"Rahl!" called Teinaava.

"Yes? What do you need from your listener?" he asked.

"We heard the latest broadcast on the radio coming from the Argonian Man Numbers Station and the voice sounded awfully familiar." said Teinaava.

"Yes, it sounded like Scar-Tail! You know, the Shadowscale traitor that you killed! Mind explaining that?" Ocheeva continued.

"I don't know what you are talking about. You must have heard wrong because Scar-Tail is dead. I even gave you his heart as proof remember?" Darken Rahl responded in a neutral voice.

"No Darken Rahl, I did not hear wrong because Scar-Tail's voice sounds distinct to us. It is definitely him calling out the numbers! We have listened to the Argonian Man station and that voice was not there until recently! Even the Konec Group is saying that the voice has changed too! We also remembered you mentioning Scar-Tail killing off an Argonian Agent sent to kill him and that he arrived weeks before you did! So who's heart did you really give us? Because we know that his voice would not be on this station if he was dead!" growled Ocheeva.

"OK! OK! FINE! I gave you the heart of an Argonian Agent that he killed who was supposed to kill him! I simply gave Scar-Tail a way to continue his duties as a royal assassin by telling him to look after a station! Blackwood Miner!" Rahl yelled as he tossed a folder with the Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau seal on it along with the EREBUS label to Ocheeva.

"One of our larger terminals hidden inside an old Imperial Legion Fortress. Officially it doesn't exist. Unofficially it is used to broadcast messages to both the Dark Brotherhood and the Shadowscales. Yes it is a Joint Operations Facility operating on a classified frequency schedule. Well technically it is classified but you can get the schedules and frequencies on the Konec Group's website under 'E7 Argonian Man' but unless you have the correct One-Time Cypher Sheet you will never be able to decode any of the messages. So nothing of value was lost." Darken Rahl explained further.

"So Scar-Tail sends the messages and the others do the actual contracts?" Teinaava asked.

"Correct." Rahl said.

"Unfortunately we cannot tolerate this deception! You have betrayed us, the Shadowscale, and us! You must die for this treason! But it will not be by our hands. The tenets forbid us from killing you. So we will have Shadowscale do..." Suddenly Ocheeva was cut off by a loud electronic screeching noise echoing throughout the sanctuary causing their ears to hurt. Then the numbers 09942 were spoken from the Numbers Station followed by another identical noise. Then a loud electronic grinding sound began play for about 15 seconds. After the numbers 15328 were spoken the noises repeated again. 

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?!" yelled Ocheeva. "YES THAT WAS A VERY UNPLEASANT SOUND!" shouted Teinaava.

"That was the Argonian Man's new message format. It uses a special analogue transmission mode known as RDFT or Redundant Digital File Transfer Protocol. It is a FSK or Frequency Shift Keying broadcast used to send digital binary data over shortwave bands." Darken Rahl calmly explained.

"Um... Could you run that by me again in english?" asked Ocheeva.

*Sigh* "Basically it is a method of send people computer files over the radio. Here, I'll show you how it works myself." the Listener said as he escorted them to the radio room. The radio room now had a special computer inside a Faraday Cage that the speaker was using to decode the messages.

"This computer has no network interfaces whatsoever. Only a simple IO or Input/Output port to receive the RDFT transmissions. It is placed inside a TEMPEST Safe that prevents any information from leaking out. The computer only has two pieces of software and a hardened Read-Only File System. The first program is called DIGITRX which is an open source program used to convert those noises into encrypted information. 

This Hybrid Voice and Digital Mode of Numbers Station first sends out five 5 digit headers multiple times in sequence. These give out the Message and Group IDs and the order in which each data burst will transmit. After that a long Sync Tone plays to tell the DIGITRX program to start listening for the digital bursts of RDFT Data.Then the first number in the sequence will play and the first contract document will be sent. The shorter Sync Tone plays to indicate that the RDFT Data is starting to transmit. A short ending tone is then played to tell the program to stop decoding. 

There are 5 contract documents to be received in each broadcast and they are sent multiple times to ensure that they are receive uncorrupted due to the lack of error correction in the RDFT Protocol. These contract documents are of course encrypted with Vernam's Cipher which is a digital version of the One-Time Pad where the plain text file is XOR'd bit by bit with a Cypher key file of the same size. Because these files are generated by Khaos Quantum Random Bit Generators it is impossible to decode the encrypted file without the Cypher File. 

This is the second program on the computer. It decrypts the files received. You load an external drive which contains nothing but large encrypted Cypher Key Files protected by a Cryptographically Deniable File System called Marutukku." said Darken Rahl as he indicated a small portable hard drive plugged into the computer.

"The 5 digit header for each file is the key for the corresponding Cypher Key File. You plug in the external drive via a USB 3.0 Port and wait for it to get recognized by the program. After that you enter the header number to unlock the Cypher Key File and decrypt the message. Once that message has been decoded the Cypher Key File is securely wiped from the drive and the fragments are scrambled across the disk.

These drives are sent from HQ to each station so that they can be used to send messages to the sanctuaries. The drives are kept in a separate location for security reasons." Rahl finally finished.

The speaker finished decrypting the documents and printed them out before shutting down the computer. The drive containing the Cyphers was unplugged and locked up in a separate safe. Then the TEMPEST Safe was closed. Ocheeva and Teinaava were assigned one of them each and then the others to the newer family members. Unfortunately alot of what Darken Rahl said was not understood by them. So most of his explanation was forgotten. After all Technomancy can be a very complex subject to learn about.

**Author's Note:**

> This mode of transmission RDFT is used by HM01 Cuban Numbers Station that can still be heard today. It does use a program called DIGITRX which can be downloaded for free.


End file.
